E01
Intro: Mamma, håll käften Orcon
Feature: Computer History
Demos: The Link (#1), Alpha Flight, Defjam/Spreadpoint
Game: BeeGee Air Rally
CG Animation: Red's Dream (John Lasseter/Pixar)

ABOUT THE SHOW

Bit för Bit (Bit by Bit) was a Swedish TV-series about computers. Six episodes were broadcasted in 1989 as part of the youth segment called Unga Tvåan on Sveriges Television (SVT). It was a mixture of education and entertainment, where each episode had competitions in games and demos, and usually an educational clip and examples of CGI-animation. There was a slightly confused hostess (Gila Bergqvist) and an animated co-host called Orcon. Orcon would slightly change his voice, personality and role in between the episodes. John Minson was a British journalist who did exclusive reports from the UK. The last episode was hosted by Jan Trolin.

Bit för Bit was the first, if not only, TV-show that brought the demoscene into the public eye on a frequent basis. They displayed demos as backdrop to the hostess, showing unedited scrolltexts with greetings, fuckings and so on. Each episode showed a collage of Amiga demos, supposedly sent in by the demo groups, and in the following episode a winner was announced. The winner was selected by a jury. Several famous demoscene groups appeared: Fairlight, Rebels, Defjam,
Kefrens, Phenomena, Byterapers, etc. In E01 and E02 the vertical synchronization was off, so the demos were displayed wrong. The end credits were a part from a Phenomena megademo, with the song Let's Party by Firefox.

Every episode had a gaming competition called "teledataspelet." The games played were GeeBee Air Rally, California Games, Paperboy and RVF Honda. They were played using the phone as a joystick. The beeps of the phone accompanied the sound of the game, and the commentry of the hostess.

There were examples of CGI-animation in most episodes. Just like the demos and games they were badly credited but they were made by, for example, John Lasseter and Jeff Minter.

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